Baby Talk

Our little Samuel is a wild, hilarious mess of an almost-two-year-old. Or five, six, or nine year old depending on what day it is. He likes to say a different number every time you ask him his age and then laugh at himself because he knows the right answer is two.

Though sometimes when you ask him "How old are you?," he misunderstands and says, "Yates! See-yule Yates!!"

Yes, sadly, "Cecil" is slowly transitioning to something sounding much more like "Samuel." I'm pretty sure I'm the only one disappointed about this. I'm glad he can say his name and all, but I love his little mispronunciations.

Like at Christmas this week, he kept saying "Opit Peese!!" for "Open please."

And he's obsessed with turning things over (including himself) and saying "Uh-sy-dow" (upside down). I've found him the downward dog position multiple times in the last week laughing and saying "uh-sy-dow! See-yule uh-sy-dow!"

He's also fabulous at mispronouncing his grandparents names. Grammy is "Hummy," Gran-Gran is "Guh-guh" and Granddaddy is "Ha heidi." He has Pappy down pretty well though.

He also refers to his teachers, Ms. Katy and Ms. Sharrone, as "Kah-yuh" and "Row."

Samuel can count to 10 by himself now, but 3 sounds something like "tree," 5 is just "fi" and 7 always comes out "se-vuh."

He's also started singing songs other than Twinkle twinkle/ABCs recently. Sometimes I can depict them by the tune. Most of them are just mish mashes of syllables though.

Colors are fun. "Boo," "Reh," "Geeeeee." He does say yellow and purple correctly.

Samuel actually has a LOT of words that he says really well. It's easy for me to forget about those. The last few days he's gotten really into holding his hand out and yelling, "STOP!" then pointing his finger and saying, "GO!!!!!" He thinks it's hysterical.

And, like every toddler, he's learned the word, "Mine!"

He really does make me laugh about 20 times a day. I need to write down more of what he says. New Years Resolution, perhaps?

You Don't Have to Go Fast. You Just Have To Go.

Half marathon #3 is in the bag, and, surprisingly, it was my fastest one yet. (But don't get the idea that it was fast. It wasn't. Almost everyone I knew finished before me).

It almost didn't happen, though.

My training buddies have been busy/out of town, so I had a hard time making myself really push hard during training. I did get in two good 10 milers, and ended up really enjoying running them by myself. So I was at least ready for this thing.

But then I got a cold/virus/something that made me gross and snotty the week of the race.
And then I pulled a muscle in my back the day before.
And then I saw that there was a 90% chance of rain/storms on race morning.

Great.

I really was about to call and switch to the 5K when a sweet friend came by to wish me luck and give me some GUs and running socks. I guess God knew I needed the extra push.

I felt pretty awful on race morning. My right ear was stopped up, my nose wouldn't stop running, my back still ached and it was definitely pouring outside. But I trained for this thing, and I determined that I was going to run it NO MATTER WHAT. I figured even if I ended up with the worst time ever, I would at least have a good excuse (okay, several).

But once I got going, it really wasn't a big deal. It was sprinkly and cold, but it made me forget my nose/ear problems. The rain actually felt really good once I got warmed up. I definitely felt pretty done by mile 11 (more mentally than anything - I just felt bored), and I kept having heart palpitations toward the end which made me slow down more than I probably would have otherwise. But I felt like I could finish strong and was able to sprint the last half mile, finishing in 1:57:22, right at 8:57/mile.

I love how flippin' awesome you feel when you realize you just ran 13 MILES. And you're DONE.

My finish was made especially awesome by my boys waiting for me at the finish line. I loved seeing their smiling faces and hearing Samuel scream "Yay Mommy!" (even though he had no clue what was going on!)

I still feel like I could have pushed a little harder and done better. But it was almost 3 minutes faster than last year despite a lot of adverse conditions, so, really, I can't complain!

My feet were pretty torn up afterwards. I had been considering training for a full, but, honestly, after feeling bored toward the end, having the palpitations bother me, and have my poor poor feet hurt for days afterwards, I think I've decided 13 is enough for me. For now anyway. ;-)

So there's my half marathon for the year. We'll see what next year brings!

Thankful List 2014

This was also in the works last week (for Thanksgiving). I won't elaborate much since I'm strapped for time. Here's my list this year!

1. Jesus and the freedom I have in Him!
2. My wonderful husband who works SO incredibly hard and still makes me swoon.
3. The cutest little boy in the world! I love being his mom!
4. The rest of our family - we are so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives to love!
5. Getting to stay home with Samuel. Even though I sometimes question if I'm living up to my potential, I know there is no greater work.
6. Running. It's my catharsis.
7. Winston-Salem, our life and home here.
8. Amazing friends! Where would I be without them?
9. Food. And baking. Also cathartic.
10. Heat/Electricity.
11. Sunshine!
12. The playground.
13. Smell. Fresh Christmas trees. Pumpkin pie. Burning leaves. It enhances life so much!
14. Not being able to have everything I want.
15. My (newish) car!
16. The Swiffer sweeper. It gets used sooo many times a day.
17. Netflix. It's pretty much all we watch.
18. We get to go to Arkansas for Christmas!
19. Books. And the ability to read and grow and continue learning.
20. Calvary and our awesome church family!

I have so so many more things to be grateful for! We truly have been blessed beyond what we could ever deserve. I hope we can give use what's been given to love out of our saucers. <3 nbsp="" p="">

Month 22!

I've had this post half-done for a week now. Haha.

A few things about Samuel at 22 Months..

Talking: This has been the biggest thing this month. He's been talking a LOT of the last few months, but this month he really started putting sentences together. Some other (non-sentence) favorites are:

- Hiding behind our recliner, poking his head around and saying "Heh-Woh!!"

- Everything is cute. "Mommy, Cat cute. Blocks cute. Josh cute. Mommy cute!"

- He calls himself "Cecil" (which I find flippin' adorable!) So sometimes he tells me, "Mommy, Cecil cute."

- Anytime anything goes wrong: "Oh no! Oh my!"

- Sometimes randomly: "Oh, mommy. Oh, Cecil. " I guess that's how I sound to him. Haha. 

- "Owl owl! Hoo Hoo!" (All penguins and snowmen are "owls," so we've been seeing a lot of them now that people are decorating for Christmas!

- Here's an excerpt I wrote down of Samuel talking to himself in his crib one morning: "Bash? Noooo. haha! No No No. Teddy! Teddy! Night night Teddy! (Kissing noises). Happy happy happy! Nana! More? ::Monkey sounds:: Yeah! Yessss!"

So yeah. He still doesn't enunciate well, but talking to him is extra-fun now!

Music: I feel like this should be a category now because Samuel has definite opinions about what we listen to. He's been obsessed with the song "Happy" by Pharrell. He would BEG to hear it ALLL the time. I finally got my friend  Tara to burn it onto a CD for me and we listened to it constantly for about a week. Now he's changed his minds and he only wants to hear Veggie Tales. He calls the song "God is Bigger Than the Boogie Man" "Eyyyyes! Eyyyes!" So most bedtimes now involve singing that song multiple times. So far he is NOT a fan of Christmas music. We're going to make him come around though. ;-)

TV: Ugh. I have a love/hate thing with our television right now. It's the only time he will sit still, but he beggggs to watch "shows!" all the time. These days we're watching:
- Leap Frog's "Scout and Friends":Shapeville Park and Numberland
- Chuck the Dump Truck
- Cars: Mater's Tall Tales
- Any Thomas the Tank Engine
- Veggie Tales
- The occasional SuperWhy

Eating: He's getting really picky, but he acts like he's starving allll the time. He just only wants crackers and cereal. (Oh, so much cereal!). He *will* try most new things if you tell him it's a cookie or a doughnut. ;-) I've been pretty consistent about giving him what we eat, especially at night. If he eats it, cool, if not, he can be hungry. Mean? Perhaps. But hopefully he'll come back around soon enough. ;-)

The biggest problem is snacking, which I am super guilty of myself. I've made out a schedule this past week of when and what we should eat each day. I'm hoping maybe we can do a little better about getting all of our veggies/fruits in at appropriate times. We'll see!

Play: He's really gotten into playing ball this month and his Mega Blocks. Tractors, trucks, cars and trains are, as always, a huge hit! He likes putting some of his big cars on the ottoman and trying to "ride" them... Um, no, child. Not happening. And, of course, he climbs. He always climbs. :-)

A few other random things:

- He has his momma's allergies. His nose runs All. The. Time. Poor baby.

- Knows most of his shapes, all his letters, we're working on numbers and colors. Numbers usually go, "1, 2, 4, 6, 9!!" Haha.

- He surprisingly HATED the inflatables at the Y and our church trunk or treat on Halloween. Like, cried when we went in there. I was shocked considering what a daredevil he is! He did like the basketball game though.

- He (usually) loves bath time, and is obsessed with brushing his teeth.

- We had Samuel's first dentist visit a few weeks ago to check out his extra baby tooth. All was well, we don't have to have it removed, and he did AMAZING letting the dentist check him out!

- He finally started voluntarily giving hugs and kisses. I love it!

- He had his first Starbucks this month -  a Caramel Apple Spice. Probably a mistake, but it was kind of the cutest thing ever!

- He knows were the all the neighborhood playgrounds are, and gets *really* upset if we run/drive by one and don't stop. So that's fun.

- We got his school pictures back! And I paid way way way too much money for them. But I love them oh so much.

Oh! And we measured/weighed him recently too. From what we can tell he currently weighs 25 1/2 lbs and is 34 1/2" tall.

Here's a few other cute pics:

He loved this hat he made at preschool!

Our morning cuddle time - He lets me hold him while he watches a "show!!"

Annnd he's waking up from nap. :-) So thankful for my sweet 22 month old!!